Origins 97 was the best show we ever had. Most everybody has heard about the fantastic run of sales DAK had (and, yes, we did have to go back to Homer Friday for more games since we all but ran out on Thursday, the day the show opened), so I won't be a boor and sound that trumpet again.

The Origins reports in Ops 26 covered the con fairly well, so I'll go into my impressions. First, I'd like to publicly thank all the volunteers who worked the booth: Dave Powell, Owen, Dan, Will, Chris, Jim, Rod, Lee, and Perry. All these guys did outstanding booth service and made every customer feel welcome. It is so nice to have guys with people skills around -- that way I don't mess things up. They kept the show running like clockwork, even when three of us had to make the drive back to Homer on Friday.

Andon ran a good show as always and they must have stuffed the card players, RPGers, and vampires in a corner somewhere, as one could go from the hotel to the exhibit hall and to open gaming without seeing many of them at all. Attendance seemed normal -- neither up nor down -- but I have no idea what the "official" figures are (and wouldn't know what to make of them if I did). The food was good and accommodations excellent, so we had no complaints.

They actually ran the CSR awards before the Origins awards this year, so we didn't have to sit through 2 hours of Origins awards only to have 90% of the audience walk out (in a mass) right before the real wargame awards. That always bugged me as rude, but I bet we'll be back to normal (those guys first) again next year because they would not want to have to wait through our stuff again.

Before the awards presentations began, Richard Berg and John Kranz ran a little audience warm-up seminar that was interesting and informative. I hope they do that again next year: it was good to have all the companies up there at once to answer guys' questions.

The show went very well and a good time was had by all. If you haven't been to Origins in a while, I suggest making plans for 1998. It will be in Columbus again and I expect an even better show.